It’s nearly two years since the MacLeod Report put employee engagement at the forefront of the economic and business agenda. As its co-author, David MacLeod, prepares to deliver a keynote presentation at the IoIC national conference in Bournemouth in May 2011, Jackie Davis caught up with him to find out what progress has been made.
Commissioned by the Government in 2008 as the recession was starting to bite, the MacLeod Report produced for the first time compelling evidence of the vital importance of engagement in improving innovation, performance and productivity across the UK economy.
 David chaired the review and, with his vice-chair Nita Clarke, spent the best part of a year talking to hundreds of organizations up and down the land to see if engagement could help the country come through its economic difficulties and meet the challenges ahead.
Their report, entitled Engaging for Success, was completed in the summer of 2009 and was unequivocal in its findings.
Step change
“We believe that if employee engagement and the principles that lie behind it were more widely understood, if good practice was more widely shared, if the potential that resides in the country’s workforce was more fully unleashed, we could see a step change in workplace performance and in employee well-being, for the considerable benefit of UK plc,” it said.
Its recommendations included raising awareness through a national campaign, aligning resources to ensure organizations have the support they need to develop engagement, and increasing the support available through training, sharing best practice and other initiatives.
So have things changed? Are organizations getting the message? “Yes,” says David. “We are definitely moving in the right direction but, make no mistake, there is still a hell of a long way to go. This is not an easy, soft topic. It takes time and a lot of effort to get it right. It involves decisions about resources, about aligning people as well as engaging them.
Raising awareness
“We have made a good start on the first phase, which is raising awareness among business and economic leaders of the impact of effective employee engagement on performance. I have stood on hundreds of podiums and attended hundreds of events around the country and there is a general acceptance that engagement produces results.
“Organizations are taking it on board but there is a still a wide spectrum in how they are doing it. Some are fairly neutral, some pay lip service and some really embrace it and are powering down the road. The challenge is to get more to power down the road.”
IoIC members can read the rest of this feature in the March 2011 edition of InsideOut - the IoIC member magazine.
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